What would the slave boys shown in a newly discovered 1860ish photo have been able to do if they had had mobile devices connected to the internet in their pockets? The discovery of the photo, with its attached record of John’s sale for $1,150 in 1854, is causing an outpouring of remarks about the way slave children were treated a century and a half ago.
There are those who would assume that the social stuff would have to come first to open the doors for a slave boy: political emancipation, financial support, social acceptance of his different skin color. Fifteen decades after this picture was taken, there are still many children for whom political/social barriers remain. They are still trapped in real and virtual kinds of slavery of many sorts in lots of places around the world.
When the picture was taken, there was no way to connect the actual John shown in the photo with knowledge beyond his slave shack and his master’s grounds. Today it is possible to connect every child on earth individually with the sum total of what is known by humankind. We can put all that into every youngster’s pocket. Certainly there would be some — many! — who would break beyond their shacks and the limits set by their masters.
